Thursday, 18 June 2015

There is no
doubt that Stephen Fry is both eloquent and erudite and so clearly the best
choice to present this inaugural lecture. However, my first concern was whether
Fry's large celebrity presence would eclipse the true subject, Oscar Wilde. However, I am glad to state that on the night all was well. He demonstrated his
enthusiasm and love of Wilde's poetry, prose, and drama to his rapt audience.He blended
his own life into the sad tale of ‘Oscar’ by recounting how after coming across
The Importance of Being Ernest he found himself overwhelmed by the play’s
brilliant use of language. This led him
to the local mobile library, in his native Norfolk, to look further, first the
play itself and then, the Complete Works. It led to many discoveries both
literary and personal.

Although the
plays had been the initial trigger for him, he spoke of Wilde in the broader sense,
seeing him as more than a playwright and poet but as a true philosopher. As
examples, he made particular reference to Oscar’s other writings such as the
Soul of Man under Socialism and De Profundis.

De Profundis
was written between January and March 1897, very close to the end of his incarceration
at Reading where he was serving a two-year sentence. At the prison, Wilde was
merely ‘Prisoner C3.3.’ He later used that as a pseudonym for his other eminent
poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol. The ballad recounts the tale of his fellow
prisoner Charles Thomas Woolridge; a former soldier tried before Berkshire
Assizes, sentenced to death, and finally hung in July 1896.

The prison looms
large in Reading, still casting its sinister shadow over the Abbey and the
Kennet. Wilde’s cell is intact and Fry was lucky enough to have visited it the
day of the lecture. I hope that one day we may have that privilege, as it is a significant
part of literary history and a dark episode in the town’s history.

He finished his
lecture and took a few questions from the audience. His responses further
demonstrated his passion for his subject. The evening was no dry academic
treatise but an entertaining, enlightening, and best of all, accessible. One
could feel the enthusiasm. I feel sure that many will have gone away with a new
respect for Wilde, to see the man in a new light and maybe to look beyond his
plays, and make new discoveries. I sincerely hope so.